Police confront the man armed with a knife after his car exploded.Source:Supplied

A man can be seen pushing a trolley towards the victim to try and stop the attack. Picture: TwitterSource:Twitter

Mr Ashton later warned the public on Weekend Sunrise that “we do ask people to be very cautious in those situations. If a firearm was produced or in fact he lunged at those people they could have been injured and we don’t want that.

“Police were there and were trained and armed to deal with that situation which they did stop nonetheless, it is a spur of the moment thing and people are acting to try to help the police and try to bring about a resolution quickly.

“I do not criticise as people... had good intentions, but again, we just have to be careful at those times that their actions don’t get them into harms way.”

The trolley pushing hero falls to the ground before getting up and charging again.Source:Twitter

Despite the warnings from police, the snap-decision actions of trolley man have been praised on social media.

“Total respect to the shopping trolley hero trying to take down a mad knife man with nothing but a metal basket on not very good wheels,” Paul Cochrane tweeted.

Man rushes at attacker with trolley 0:14

The man dubbed 'trolley hero'

November 9th 2018

11 days ago

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“Incredible work by police in Melbourne but also bystanders — one using a trolley to try subdue the man,” Cyndi Lavrencic said.

“Cops trying to take down man armed with knife. Passer-by seems to be trying to take him out with a shopping trolley!” Dan Nolan said.

Meanwhile on Facebook, the search is on to track down the man with a number of commenters on news.com.au’s page eager to shout him a beer.